PAPER
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
Open Educational Resources: The Role of OCW,
Blogs, and Videos in Computer Networks
Classroom
http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v7i3.2116
P. Gil, F.A. Candelas, G.J. García, C.A. Jara
University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Abstract—This paper analyzes the learning experiences and
opinions obtained from a group of undergraduate students
in their interaction with several on-line multimedia
resources included in a free on-line course about Computer
Networks. These new educational resources employed are
based on the Web 2.0 approach such as blogs, videos and
virtual labs which have been added in a web-site for
distance self-learning.
Index Terms— Educational Resources; OpenCourseWare;
Blogs, Videos and Simulations.
I.
INTRODUCTION
The work presented in this paper describes the
implementation and results in learning of a set of
educational resources for an open and free education. This
type of resources is designed for an independent learner
and/or a distance self-learning. The process of
convergence to ESHE (European Space of Higher
Education) [1] determines that traditional education must
be combined with distance education because a good
distance teaching education provides flexibility to
students. This way, the students can configure their own
free schedule according to their necessity and level of
knowledge. The distance education requires of academic
rigor and it can be achieved with monitoring and
supervision by the teacher, a good organization where
lessons are correctly focused to the course objectives and
where the students have original and suitable educational
resources to learn. The Open Educational Resources
(OERs) [2] play an important role in this new educational
context. In previous works, LCMS (Learning Content
Management System) like Moodle and virtual laboratories
based on KivaNS+EJS have been designed and
implemented [3,4] to improve the learning by means free
and open software. Nowadays, two new resources have
been used to the educational process: OpenCourseWare
and blog sites. Their description and their influence are
studied in this paper.
The MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) project [5] has
significantly improved the distance/on-line learning and
teaching [6]. The OCW is a free open digital publication
of educational materials, organized as courses. In May
2011, the University of Alicante (UA) won the award of
OCW-Consortium ‘Landmark Site’ for excellence. In this
paper, the Open Course of the subject “Computer
Networks” [7] which was launched in 2010 as part of
OCW-UA, is described. Thus, this paper describes what
4
OERs have been included in the Open Course of
Computer Networks, such as textbooks, video logs, tests,
software, links, and other tools or techniques used to
support access to knowledge about Computer Networks.
In addition, some studies have been done to collect the
opinion of students and new or potentials teachers
(lectures) respect to Open Course of Computer Networks.
Other instruments, as monitoring access, have also been
used to characterize the visits and the visitors. However,
the OCW is not the only way to distribute educational
resources. Other booming tools are Blogs [8,9] and Wikis
[10].
Furthermore, in this paper we will present a discussion
about the use and usability of the blog of the subject
“Computer Networks” [11] and its contents. The students
have been asked if the blog satisfies their expectations. In
this work, it is also described the student experiences
when they require search information about the subject
such as tutoring schedules, recommended books, free
software to download, new online courses as OCW
belonging to other universities and other educational
resources. Thus, the content of the site and its structure
and organization will be discussed.
The perception about the educational resources is a very
relevant issue. New educational resources such as
multimedia, video, web site, OCW, etc. must be attractive.
In the frame of the work presented here, the students were
asked about it in order to develop new improvements.
Together with OCW for Computer Networks subject, a
blog for the subject has been created. This blog has been
voted winner as the best 2011-blog of University of
Alicante. It has been awarded due to its quality of learning
resources, structure, organization and contents.
The paper is organized as follows: Section II describes
the blog and the OCW implemented for the Computer
Networks subject and discusses why using a blog as an
educational tool. Also, it explains how the OCW
influences in the teaching and learning methodology.
Furthermore, the opinion of students about the blogs in the
learning process is shown in this section. Afterwards,
Section III comments other digital resources used to
improve learning such as streaming video. Finally, some
important conclusions are reported in Section IV.
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
II.
THE BLOG AND OCW
A. What is the blog and/or OCW for?
In April 2001, MIT announced the OpenCourseWare
(OCW) project [5]. MIT defined an OCW as course
materials that are used in the teaching of almost all
undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the web,
free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. It is
important to remark that the educational material of an
OCW must get from existing classroom courses and not
for a specially developed e-learning environment.
In our opinion, a courseware should be developed as an
integrated part of courses which consist of a multimedia
mix of materials (such as textbooks, videos, software,
links and interactive simulations) and not only the
electronic resources of the theoretical classes with some
additional support. Our OCW was created in this way.
Students demand the content of an OCW be more
interactive, because the slides and files of the subject
contents are hard to understand without a context of the
course. Fig. 1 depicts an image of the appearance of this
OCW’s web site [7]. The OERs included in the OCW
about the subject of Computer Networks are composed by
multimedia videos, electronic documents, interactive
simulations and several external links to provide more
information to students. In general, the students would
prefer short movies or video logs. These make the web
site of OCW more active and attractive.
The organization of the OCW has been done following
the next structure: Presentation, Aims and Scope,
Contents,
Educational
Methodology,
Evaluation,
Materials, Bibliography and Internet Resources.
For the Presentation of the subject in the OCW, the
teachers developed two educational video logs (for the
theoretical and practical part) where the contents,
resources and methodology of the subject are explained by
means of a presentation embedded in the same video.
Aims and Scope, Contents, Educational Methodology and
Evaluation are simple and static web pages where the
subject organization is explained by the teachers in the
real context. In the Materials section, all the textbooks and
documents used by the teacher are provided in electronic
form and they are linked from the Repository of the
University of Alicante [13]. Finally, in the Internet
resources section, there are several links to interactive
applets developed by the authors [3,4] about computer
network simulations.
Figure 1. OCW for Computer Networks subject
iJET – Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2012
Figure 2. Blog of Computer Networks subject
This OCW of Computer Networks is very useful
because it allows students to engage in their self-learning
study, providing on-line resources available outside the
classroom or laboratory. Additionally, this OCW can be
used by other teachers from other universities in order to
follow the educational contents and methodology used in
the subject, because the course is open.
Regarding the blog, this kind of resource has already
been used successfully to enhance the communication
between students and teachers in educational contexts [9].
Blogs not only use simple user interfaces but also provide
a tool that allows users to easily maintain the content or
add new entries. One of the most important features of
blogs is that they are not geographically or temporally
constrained [14]. In [15], the main activities for learning
that can be performed with learning-oriented blogs are
summarized in: reading blogs of others, receiving
comments and previewing tasks of others and reading
feedback received in relation to these. The reasons behind
teachers’ willingness to adopt teaching blogs have been
widely studied in [16]. In this work, Lai and Chen
numerate eight significant influences on teaching blog
adoption: perceived enjoyment, codification effort,
compatibility, perceived ease of use, personal
innovativeness, enjoyment in helping others, school
support and perceived usefulness, ranked by relative
importance.
Blogs allow a different group of people to achieve
communication and content production. A blog
overcomes the limitations of a LCMS as Moodle, where
the platform is closed and it is sometimes used merely as a
repository of documents. Blogs provide the ability to
broadcast events, news, courses, announcements, jobs,
jobs at other universities and institutions, etc.
Our blog provides useful information about Computer
Networks subject. There are posts related to the content of
the course, reporting the objectives, the program or the
bibliography of the subject. Fig. 2 depicts an image of the
appearance of the blog developed for Computer Networks
subject at University of Alicante [11].
Nevertheless, the blog has not been created to post only
basic information related to the subject. Related news,
courses or links have been added to attract the student’s
attention while teachers increase the students learning
possibilities. Recently, new posts with embedded short
videos, which have been produced by the students
themselves, have been added. Each video deals with a
particular topic of the practical laboratory work. The posts
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
can be commented by other students, generating an
interesting feedback to improve their own work. Blogs are
effective tools in driving and motivating learning. With
them, learning becomes more informal.
The OCW and the blog provide the possibility to locate
and supply material resources for learning and help
students find relevant content in relation with the
theoretical classes. In addition, these e-learning tools can
increase the participation and collaborative relationships
between the students, since they can share experiences or
opinions during the attending classes.
B. Students’ Opinion about blog and OCW for
‘Computer Network’ subject.
A survey has been arranged to determine the degree of
satisfaction of the students in relation to the blogs and
OCW as teaching tool for improve the learning process.
The survey consisted of 25 questions to evaluate different
issues, such as: the level of agree about Blogs and OCW
for subjects and videos. Furthermore, in the last academic
year, 2011/12, 69 students have coursed this subject (89%
are men and 11% women). However, only 45 students
have voluntary answered the survey about OCW [7] and
Blogs [11]. The average age of respondents is 22 years
old. These same students have participated in the
development of educational videos about simulations.
On the one hand, the students have compared the blog
‘Computer Network’ (Fig. 2) with other blogs at the
University of Alicante (Fig. 3). The comparison has been
done from a viewpoint of handling (ease to use),
organization (how the contents have been structured and if
they are easy to find), update frequency and the relevance
of own and alien links and resources. The scale of
qualification is from 1 (totally disagree and/or dissatisfied)
to 5 (totally agree and/or satisfied).
Fig. 3 shows the results obtained in the survey
performed. As it can be seen in this figure, the great
majority of students think that the ‘Computer Network
blog’ is better than other blogs known by students. They
stand its organization and the relevance of the resources
which are linked. The 43.2% of students voted 4 on a
scale between 1 (the lowest) and 5 (the highest) and the
31.8% of they voted 3 when they were interviewed about
the organization. The best satisfaction score is obtained
when they give their opinion about the linked educational
resources. So, the 22.2% and 15.9% of students are
completely satisfied with the own and alien resources
(they voted 5). Moreover, the 24.4% and 47.7% of
students think that the score of these resources are 4; in
addition the 37.8% and 27.3% think that this score is 3.
Moreover, Fig. 4 shows an analysis of the distributions
shown in Fig. 3. In this case, the graph looks for the value
that occurs most frequently in each data set (statistic value
of mode). The value mode is always equal or bigger than
3 for all aspects.
On the other hand, the students were asked about if the
learning process improves using blogs and OCW and how
it improves. According to the opinion about blogs (Fig. 5),
the 78.3% (equal or bigger than a score of 3) of students
think that the learning is more fun. The score 3 is the
value more repeated by students when they give their
opinion about the additional information published in the
blog, such as news of computer network world,
information about courses taught in other universities and
institutions, etc. (the 67.3% of students voted 3 or more).
6
Moreover, the students consider (they have voted 4 in
the great majority and the 78.2% vote 3 or more) that the
digital resources provided (on-line courses, videos, links
to simulators and software) and the communications
between students and other people interested in the topic
of computer networks become more fluid (the 71.7% of
students). They think that the comments about information
of blog can greatly enhance and help the communications
among students of different universities or the same
university.
According to the opinion about OCW (Fig. 6), the
results of the research were the followings: The 80.8% of
students think that an OCW could replace the teaching
methodology based on masterly lessons (40.4% have
voted 4 and 40.4% have voted 3).
The great majority of students think that OCW
improves the autonomous learning process. Almost 47%
voted 4, the 20% have voted 5 and only 19% think the
opposite (have voted 1 or 2).
50%
45%
Handling
40%
35%
Organization
30%
25%
Update
20%
Relevance 'own resources'
15%
10%
Relevance 'alien resources'
5%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 3. Student’s opinion in relation with other blogs of subject
Handling
5
4
3
Relevance 'alien resources'
Organization
2
1
Relevance 'own resources'
Update
Figure 4. In what is better this blog than others?
More fun
5
4
3
Useful in general
2
1
Communications between students
Additional information: news, courses, etc
Additional resources: simulators, online courses, …
Figure 5. How the learning process improves with Blog
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
Can replace the masterly lesson
5
4‐7 times/wk; 0,0%
2‐4 times/wk; 4,5%
2‐4 times/wk; 8,9%
1‐2 times/wk;
11,1%
never; 6,8%
4
3
never; 33,3%
1‐2 times/wk; 36,4%
2
1
Useful in general
4‐7 times/wk; 0,0%
1 time/wk; 52,3%
1 time/wk; 46,7%
Improve the Autonomous learning Figure 6. How the process learning improves with OCW
The great majority of students think that OCW
improves the autonomous learning process. Almost 47%
voted 4, the 20% have voted 5 and only 19% think the
opposite (have voted 1 or 2). In general, the students are
now interested in the development of computer-based
courseware although the number of these students is lower
than the number of students who consider useful the OCW
in combination with masterly lesson. In this way, many
students think that could be interested only when a
distance self-learning methodology is required (53.4%
have voted below 2 and only 13.3% have voted 4 or
more).
The content of the blog is organized in sections.
However, these sections are not insulated containers.
There are more cross-links that lead to the student from
one section to different another. In the blog, the main
topics mentioned are organized as general information of
subject such as objectives, program, bibliography and
teacher information. Furthermore, the different news and
courses about computer networks in the world are
published and they have been written by other academics.
In addition, other kind of educational resources developed
by the teachers and by other academics are linked:
software, simulators, videos, slides, etc.
The survey had some open questions which the students
give their opinion about what sections have been the most
and the less visited. The results show that the videos and
slides with 22 votes are on the top rate of the resources
published from the blog. Other important resources which
have been very much accessed are: the notices (7 votes)
and the detail of the program of practical and theoretical
classes (14 votes). The sections with less access were the
teacher information, and objectives of subject.
C. Frequency of student access to Blog and OCW
When our students are asked about how often they have
used the Blog as educational resource, they usually answer
4 times every month. In general, it is one time every week.
This access frequency can be observed in Fig. 7.
Moreover, in that figure the access comparison with OCW
can be observed. Our students usually access once for
week (52.3% and 46.7%) in both, Blog and OCW.
Furthermore, it is remarkable that 33.3% of students have
never accessed to OCW versus the 6.6% of students who
have not accessed to Blog. This fact may be because the
blog is a tool more dynamic and flexible in relation to the
provided contents and its update frequency. However, the
OCW is a static tool and it is more oriented to distance elearning.
The blog, OCW and the links to other websites that
these tools contain are not the only educational resources
which the student can use throughout the course.
iJET – Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2012
Figure 7. Access frequency of : a) Blog b) OCW
8,5%
6,4%
8,5%
10h/wk
5‐10h/wk
29,8%
1‐5h/wk
0‐1h/wk
46,8%
never
Figure 8. Internet access frequency to consult topics about Computer
Networks
For this reason, it is important to emphasize that
sometimes the student access to other sites in Internet
looking for information in order to clarify doubts, add
contents, supplement their learning or simply curiosity.
D. Frequency of access to Blog and OCW from abroad
and other places
Our OCW materials are accessible since December
2010. Until today, more than 1646 and 4571 users have
downloaded materials about theoretical and practical
classes, respectively. The OCW visitors come mainly
from Spain (47% and 33.4%), Latin America (46.1% and
59.6%), and North America (3.2% and 2.7%), countries
where there are an important Spanish speaking
community, although, recently, the materials are also
being accessed from other geographical areas (1.4% and
2.6%), such as Europe, Asia and Africa, with similar
percentage. From our University the visits and downloads
were 2.3% and 1.7%. However, the profile of users is
unknown. Information about whether they are selflearners, students or educators is not available. Fig. 9
shows the download information classified by type of
materials: theoretical lessons and expositions in the
classroom and practical lessons and laboratory documents.
On the other hand, our Blog is accessible since June
2010. From February 2011, the monitoring of visits is
being done by means of the Google Analytics tool. This
tool allows us to know the location and language of
visitors from outside of our University. The visitors of the
blog are mainly from Spain (35.3%), Latin America
(62%) and North America (1.2%), countries where there is
an important Spanish speaking community.
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
3,2%
0,4%
1,0%
2,3%
UA
2,7%
Spain (no UA)
1,0%
1,6%
1,7%
Latin‐America
North‐America
Europe
Other Countries
46,1%
33,4%
47,0%
59,6%
Figure 9. Downloads Distribution of OCW. a) Theoretical lessons. b)
Practical lessons
III. VIDEO LOGS
The use of videos for documenting laboratory
experiences is one of the main aspects on which the
proposed methodology is based. This section is centered
in describing how this type of resources were created and
added in the OCW and blogs, in order to improve the selflearning.
A. What is video logs for?
Keeping in mind that the direct support of the teacher is
not available for the student when he/she studies on their
own outside the classroom or laboratory, it was decided to
include video logs as new online resources in order to
facilitate the understanding about concepts on protocols
working. Moreover, this kind of resources can make more
productive the self-learning trough the web technologies.
Video logs were proposed as short documentary videos
describing the development, step by step, of lab
experiences in which the working of a specific protocol is
analyzed. In most video logs, the experience is described
in the same way that it should be carried out in the
laboratory of the faculty, using the same equipment and
software tools. In other video logs, concepts are explained
by using the network simulator KivaNS [17], which has
been developed by the authors’ research group.
For example, the Fig. 9 shows two snapshots of a video
log about the operation of ARP and TCP protocols,
respectively. In essence, the first video describes the next
aspects: the messages which are trigged by the protocol
after running the command "ping" in a computer in
laboratory, the format of these data messages based on the
information captured by a network monitor, and the
resulting state in the ARP table of the computer. And the
second video describes the segmentation of TCP packets
when the MSS value is negotiated between the end nodes
in a data transmission process. The route, the size and type
of TCP packets and Ethernet frames are described in the
process with the support of Wireshark monitor.
Although the first video logs were recorded by the
teachers, these soon feel that it would be a good idea that
students record their own experiences to share with their
peers. Thus, students were encouraged to record video
logs to document their laboratory experiments, as an
optional activity that scored in the final grade for the
course. At the same time, the students who developed
videos also reinforced the knowledge that they attempt to
explain in videos. The target of OERs, such as video logs,
is to enhance the online learning, while, at the same
8
Figure 10. Snapshots of two video logs describing ARP and TCP
protocols.
time, the online learner participation is also improved
[18].
Teachers have been reviewing the videos produced by
students to select those that best describe the different
protocols. These selected videos have been published as
open online resources on the blog of the subject [11], in
addition to the institutional YouTube profile of the
University of Alicante, and the popular public Repository
of the University of Alicante (RUA) [13].
B. Student’s opinion on video logs relevance
During the last course 2011/12, the Computer Network
subject has been taught in two degrees about Computer
Sciences. The number of students has been 69 and 196
students, in each career, respectively.
On the one hand, 69 students of a degree were surveyed
about OCW and Blogs, and 45 gave their opinions. As
commented before, these digital resources were designed
not only by the teachers, but also, by the same students,
which have participated in the development of other
educational resources such as videos logs about
simulations and operations of TCP/IP protocols.
On the other hand, in order to obtain an opinion about
these new resources, these same videos have been used by
other 196 students of another different degree. In this case,
80 students of 196 (93% are men and only 7% are
women) have opined and evaluated about this new tool as
educational videos. It is important that the students who
evaluate videos are different to the students who do them.
In this case, the average age of respondents is 20 years
old. The result of this opinion is shown in the Fig. 10. Five
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
40%
40
Blog 35%
35
30
Improve understanding ARP
25
Improve understanding ICMP
20
Improve understanding MAC and IP address
15
10
Improve understanding about routing
5
OCW
Videos
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 11. Student’s opinion about video logs.
important questions have been consulted. The scale of
qualification is between 5 (totally agree) and 1 (totally
disagree) for the survey. The first four proposed questions
are about what topics are easier to understand when the
videos are seen by the students. The 65.1% (52 of 80
students) and 55.8% (47 of 80 students) think that they
have now a better understanding of ARP and ICMP
protocols, respectively. In these cases, the students have
voted 4 or more when they have been asked. The same
way, the 46.9% (38 of 81 students) and 73.4% (58 of 79
students) opined that the comprehension of addressing and
routing is over TCP/IP are better after watching the
videos.
With a fifth question the teachers want to know whether
the videos are useful for the distance education as well for
the classroom education. That is, the degree to which they
could replace the teacher's explanations. In general, the
73% of students (58 of 80 respondents) give an
affirmative answer when they are asked about this (they
voted 4 or more).
IV. CONCLUSIONS
This paper explains how the learning process is
enhanced using a set of web 2.0 resources such as blogs,
OCWs and video logs. Overall, this type of OERs is an
effective tool for motivating the learning. In addition, the
learning process becomes more informal. The blogs and
OCW improve the search of resources while avoiding the
dispersions of contents. Furthermore, the participation and
collaborative relationships are increased, altruistically
when blogs, OCWs, and video blogs are used. Students
valuate positively the added value of being able to
communicate online with other people and the suggestions
of links to other websites for finding other courses,
software, simulators or educational resources. Thus, these
tools help students find relevant contents and understand
concepts.
Moreover, the students were asked if the
teaching/learning model supplemented with these tools is
better than a teaching/learning without them. The opinion
survey consisted of 3 additional questions. In these
questions, the teachers wanted to know if the students
considered these educational resources (blogs, OCW and
video logs) essential tools to learn Computer Networks
subject and therefore if they thought that it should be
added to other subjects of the academic course and/or
degree. A comparison of these three opinions
demonstrates the acceptance level of the new resources to
the learning process by the students (Fig. 11). Analyzing
the results in
iJET – Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2012
2
3
4
5
Figure 12. Are OCW, blog and videos any essential tools to improve
the learning process in face to face methodology?
60%
2010/11 (without...)
2011/12 (with Blog+OCW+Videos)
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
F (<5)
C+,C,C‐,D [5‐6.5] B+,B,B‐ [6.5‐8.5] A+,A,A‐ [8.5‐10]
Figure 13. Grades acquired by students about ‘Computer Network’
subject.
detail, the 71.7%, 82.3% and 81.5% of 80 students have
voted 3 or more in a scale between 1 and 5. Moreover,
47.8% of students have voted 4 or more versus 28.2% of
students which have voted 2 or less when they are asked
about Blogs. The results are even better when the opinion
is about OCW or Blogs. In these cases are 46.7% versus
17.7% and 59.3% versus 18.5%, respectively. For this
reason, the majority opinion indicates that these resources
begin to be essential in the future of education.
Analyzing the results of students during the past two
academic courses (2010/11 and 2011/12), it can be
deduced that the efficacy of learning is better when blogs,
OCW and videos have been used as educational support
(Fig. 12). Fig. 12 shows how the students have obtained
higher grades when they have used these new educational
resources. In general, there are more students with a
success rate greater than 6.5 of 10 points. At the same
time, the number of students who achieved an excellent
level of knowledge has increased.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the “Education Science
Institute” and the “Technology & Educational Innovation
Vice-President Office” of the University of Alicante
through the aid “Technologic & Educative Research
Groups (GITE)”.
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OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ROLE OF OCW, BLOGS, AND VIDEOS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS CLASSROOM
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AUTHORS
P. Gil is with the Department of Physics, System
Engineering and Signal Theory, University of Alicante,
Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San
Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain (e-mail:
[email protected]). He received the Ph.D. degree in 2008,
and currently he is Associate Professor. He teaches
courses in computer networks and robot vision. His
research interests include virtual laboratories, educational
technologies and computer vision for robotic systems. He
is member IEEE- Education Society, and Spanish
Committee of Automatics (CEA).
F. A. Candelas is with the Department of Physics,
System Engineering and Signal Theory, University of
Alicante (UA), Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n,
03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain (e-mail:
[email protected]). He received the Ph.D. degree
in 2001, and currently he is Associate Professor. His main
researching interest topics are virtual and remote
laboratories, industrial automation and computer
networks. He also belongs to Spanish Committee of
Automatics (CEA) since 1999.
G. J. García is with the Department of Physics, System
Engineering and Signal Theory, University of Alicante,
Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San
Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain (e-mail:
[email protected]). He received the Ph.D. degree in 2010, and
currently he is Assistant Professor. His research interests
include educational technologies and robot vision. He
belongs to Spanish Committee of Automatics (CEA) since
2004.
C. A. Jara is with the Department of Physics, System
Engineering and Signal Theory, University of Alicante,
Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San
Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain (e-mail:
[email protected]). He received the Ph.D. degree in 2010,
and currently he is Assistant Professor. His research
interests include virtual and remote laboratories,
collaborative learning, robotics and industrial automation.
He belongs to Spanish Committee of Automatics (CEA)
since 2006.
This work was supported in part by the Education Science Institute and
the Technology & Educational Innovation Vice-President Office of the
University of Alicante through the aid “Technologic & Educative
Research Groups”. Manuscript received 28 May 2012. Published as
resubmitted by the authors 7 August 2012.
http://www.i-jet.org